Carlos Alberto Juárez
Encyclopedia
Carlos Alberto Juárez is a former Argentine
/Ecuador
ian footballer.
He has had a very long and successful career playing for several clubs all over the world, but he played most of his career in the Ecuadorian football league. especially for Ecuadorian giants Emelec
, wHere he is its all time goal scorer and he is considered one of the best players the club has ever had.
, were he was quickly recognized as a promising talent for the future. In 1994 he was loaned to Uruguayan side Montevideo Wanderers where he had a fairly good season, and the next year he went back to Argentina to play for Lanus, and in 8 games he scored twice which got the attention of Mexican team Santos Laguna
. He was signed by the Torreón
side the same year. He did not have a good season playing for Santos and he was relegated to their reserve squad.
Emelec rivals recognized Juárez as a major threat to their interests in every game and they used to change their defensive style to cope with his large physique. This and Juarez great accuracy and vision to assist his teammates helped so that other forwards such as Ariel Graziani(twice), Jaime Ivan Kaviedes, Otelino Tenorio and Alejandro Kenig
become Ecuadorian league top goal scorer. In 2001, Juarez managed to get that title for himself scoring 17 goals, and helping Emelec win the Ecuadorian League title.
During his several years playing for Emelec, Juárez left Ecuador
for short periods of time to play for Peruvian team Sporting Cristal
, where he became an idol, and Uruguayan side Nacional de Montevideo, where he also had a very good season. Every year speculation over his future at Emelec aroused and every year he stayed because of the high fee Emelec's management asked for Juárez's contract and because Bossman's law was not applied in Ecuador at the time. To keep him satisfied Emelec officials paid Juárez the highest salary of the Ecuadorian league. However in 2004 this was insufficient to convince him to stay and he left Emelec for free, to play for Spanish side Real Murcia
, becoming the first Ecuadorian player to take advantage of Bossman's law.
Overall Juárez played most of his career from 1996 to 2003 at Emelec, and with his help the "electricos" won two national championships in 2001 and 2002, and were runner ups in 1996, and 1998; he also played 6 Copa Libertadores and 3 Copa Merconorte
s, and in 2001 he was part of the Emelec squad that was runner up for the defunct Copa Merconorte.
Juárez will be greatly remembered by Emelec's fans for his extraordinary performances and love for the club, especially for his header in the last game of the 2001 season against El Nacional
which gave the club its first title in 7 years and also because during his career he was tempted several times by Emelec's archrival Barcelona
, and he always turned them down. His identification with Emelec is so strong that many times during matches against Barcelona he would wear t-shirts with sentences on them to taunt his rivals.
he decided to become an Ecuadorian citizen. He got the citizenship in 1999 and in the year 2000 he made his debut with the Ecuadorian national side in the Japan-Korea FIFA world cup qualifiers match against Paraguay
.
Despite being one of the most successful forwards in the Ecuadorian league he did not have many opportunities with the Ecuadorian National Team, Ecuador's coach at the time, Colombian Hernán Darío Gómez
, considered his and fellow nationalized player Ariel Graziani's presence to be negative for the group inside the national squad.
and in 2005 he returned to Ecuador to play for LDU Quito. He had very few games for the "albos" when after a Copa Sudamericana
match he tested positive for cocaine and he was suspended for 6 months.
Rumors of drug abuse where always present during Juarez's career but were always denied by the player. The 6 months suspension was the first clear proof that Juárez was involved in drug consumption. However, to this day, Juárez denies these accusations and claims his urine sample was switched on that test.
, Nacional won 3-1 and an extremely overweight Juárez scored the Uruguayans'last goal, he was very respectful and did not celebrate the goal, however the result sealed Emelec's elimination from the tournament that year.
After Emelec's elimination from the Copa Libertadores, the club management decided to bring back Juárez to play one last time for Emelec. When he arrived in Ecuador he needed sometime to get back in shape, it was said that he was around 40 pounds overweight, but when he got back in shape the impact of his presence was immediate. Juárez scored 6 goals and made 5 assists in 17 games for Emelec that season, and in a match against Deportivo Cuenca he scored his 134th goal for the club which made him Emelec's all time top goal scorer, surpassing the 133 goals of former Emelec's glory, Jesus Cardenas. Despite his good performances Emelec did not qualify for the final stages of the Ecuadorian league and Juárez went back to Argentina, expecting to be recalled for the next season.
When Emelec was disqualified from the 2007 Ecuadorian Championship, the club held elections to select a new management. New president Elias Wated and his group work, publicly disregarded Juárez as a signing for 2008, they said that he was too old, too fat, too slow, too problematic but overall too expensive for Emelec's budget.
For the 2008 season, the new management struggled to find good national and foreign players especially forwards, in the meantime Juárez was in Argentina handling personal businesses, later he would publicly confess that at the time he thought he was a retired player. Emelec's bad results contributed so that an Ecuadorian sports store decided to help the club and offered to sign Juárez for Emelec and pay all expenses. At first the team's management was reluctant to accept this, but after the bad run continued and the pressure from the press and most importantly the fans grew, they decided to accept Juárez's return. He is now part of Emelec's squad and has played in 4 games and has made 1 assists for the team which is fighting to qualify for the last stages of the league.
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
/Ecuador
Ecuador
Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...
ian footballer.
He has had a very long and successful career playing for several clubs all over the world, but he played most of his career in the Ecuadorian football league. especially for Ecuadorian giants Emelec
Club Sport Emelec
Club Sport Emelec is a Ecuadorian sports club based in Guayaquil that is best known for their professional football team. The football team plays in the Ecuadorian Serie A, the highest level of professional football in the country....
, wHere he is its all time goal scorer and he is considered one of the best players the club has ever had.
Early career
Juárez started his career playing for Argentine first division side Club Atlético LanúsClub Atlético Lanús
Club Atlético Lanús is a sports club from Lanús, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. Founded on 3 January 1915, the club's main sports are football and basketball. In both sports, Lanús plays in Argentina's top divisions: Primera División and Liga Nacional de Básquet...
, were he was quickly recognized as a promising talent for the future. In 1994 he was loaned to Uruguayan side Montevideo Wanderers where he had a fairly good season, and the next year he went back to Argentina to play for Lanus, and in 8 games he scored twice which got the attention of Mexican team Santos Laguna
Santos Laguna
Club Santos Laguna is a Mexican football club. They represent the urban area of Comarca Lagunera, which is made up of Torreón, Gomez Palacio, and Lerdo. Santos Laguna currently plays in the Primera División. The club was founded in 1982, and reached Mexico's top division after buying the franchise...
. He was signed by the Torreón
Torreón
Torreón is a city and seat of the surrounding municipality of the same name in the Mexican state of Coahuila. As of 2010, the city's population was 608,836 with 639,629 in the municipality. The metropolitan population, including Matamoros, Coahuila, and Gómez Palacio and Lerdo in adjacent Durango,...
side the same year. He did not have a good season playing for Santos and he was relegated to their reserve squad.
Emelec
During his spell at Montevideo Wanderers former Emelec manager, Angel Castelnoble saw that Juárez had great talent and took advantage of his complicated situation in Mexico signing him for Emelec in 1996. On his debut match against Espoli, Emelec won 4-0, Juarez scored twice and made the other two assists for his teammate and good friend Ariel Graziani, giving a preview of things to come. Emelec fans immediately fell in love with the forward who is know, 12 years later, Emelec's all time top goal scorer with over 130 goals.Emelec rivals recognized Juárez as a major threat to their interests in every game and they used to change their defensive style to cope with his large physique. This and Juarez great accuracy and vision to assist his teammates helped so that other forwards such as Ariel Graziani(twice), Jaime Ivan Kaviedes, Otelino Tenorio and Alejandro Kenig
Alejandro Kenig
Alejandro Martín Kenig is a retired Argentine footballer who played for a number of clubs both in Argentina and South America, including Club Atlético Platense, Talleres de Córdoba, Club Bolívar and Club Sport Emelec....
become Ecuadorian league top goal scorer. In 2001, Juarez managed to get that title for himself scoring 17 goals, and helping Emelec win the Ecuadorian League title.
During his several years playing for Emelec, Juárez left Ecuador
Ecuador
Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...
for short periods of time to play for Peruvian team Sporting Cristal
Sporting Cristal
Club Sporting Cristal is a Peruvian football team. Based in the Rímac District, in the department of Lima, it plays in the professional league known as the Peruvian First Division. Founded on November 16, 1926 in the Rimac District given its approval to the merger and Snuff Sporting merging with...
, where he became an idol, and Uruguayan side Nacional de Montevideo, where he also had a very good season. Every year speculation over his future at Emelec aroused and every year he stayed because of the high fee Emelec's management asked for Juárez's contract and because Bossman's law was not applied in Ecuador at the time. To keep him satisfied Emelec officials paid Juárez the highest salary of the Ecuadorian league. However in 2004 this was insufficient to convince him to stay and he left Emelec for free, to play for Spanish side Real Murcia
Real Murcia
Real Murcia Club de Fútbol, S.A.D. is a Spanish football club based in the region of Murcia. Founded in 1908, it currently plays in the second division, playing home matches at Estadio Nueva Condomina, which can hold 33,045 spectators....
, becoming the first Ecuadorian player to take advantage of Bossman's law.
Overall Juárez played most of his career from 1996 to 2003 at Emelec, and with his help the "electricos" won two national championships in 2001 and 2002, and were runner ups in 1996, and 1998; he also played 6 Copa Libertadores and 3 Copa Merconorte
Copa Merconorte
The Copa Merconorte was an international football competition played from 1998 to 2001 by clubs from Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and later the United States, Costa Rica and Mexico...
s, and in 2001 he was part of the Emelec squad that was runner up for the defunct Copa Merconorte.
Juárez will be greatly remembered by Emelec's fans for his extraordinary performances and love for the club, especially for his header in the last game of the 2001 season against El Nacional
El Nacional
El Nacional is a Venezuelan publishing company under the name C.A. Editorial El Nacional, most widely known for its El Nacional newspaper. It, along with Últimas Noticias and El Universal, are the most widely read and circulated daily national newspapers in the country, and it has an average of...
which gave the club its first title in 7 years and also because during his career he was tempted several times by Emelec's archrival Barcelona
Barcelona Sporting Club
Barcelona Sporting Club is an Ecuadorian sports club based in Guayaquil, known best for its professional football team. They currently play in the Ecuadorian Serie A, the highest level of football in the country, and hold the distinction of being the only team to have never been relegated.With...
, and he always turned them down. His identification with Emelec is so strong that many times during matches against Barcelona he would wear t-shirts with sentences on them to taunt his rivals.
Ecuadorian citizenship
After playing and living for over 3 years in EcuadorEcuador
Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...
he decided to become an Ecuadorian citizen. He got the citizenship in 1999 and in the year 2000 he made his debut with the Ecuadorian national side in the Japan-Korea FIFA world cup qualifiers match against Paraguay
Paraguay
Paraguay , officially the Republic of Paraguay , is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to the east and northeast, and Bolivia to the northwest. Paraguay lies on both banks of the Paraguay River, which runs through the center of the...
.
Despite being one of the most successful forwards in the Ecuadorian league he did not have many opportunities with the Ecuadorian National Team, Ecuador's coach at the time, Colombian Hernán Darío Gómez
Hernán Darío Gómez
Hernán Darío Gómez Jaramillo, also known as El Bolillo is a Colombian ex-football player and manager.He was an active player from 1966 to 1985.He successfully led Ecuador to their first World Cup finals in 2002...
, considered his and fellow nationalized player Ariel Graziani's presence to be negative for the group inside the national squad.
Doping
He was not successful playing in Spain for Real MurciaReal Murcia
Real Murcia Club de Fútbol, S.A.D. is a Spanish football club based in the region of Murcia. Founded in 1908, it currently plays in the second division, playing home matches at Estadio Nueva Condomina, which can hold 33,045 spectators....
and in 2005 he returned to Ecuador to play for LDU Quito. He had very few games for the "albos" when after a Copa Sudamericana
Copa Sudamericana
The Copa Bridgestone Sudamericana de Clubes , known simply as the Copa Sudamericana , is an annual international club football competition organized by the CONMEBOL since 2002. It is the second most prestigious club competition in South American football. CONCACAF clubs were invited between 2004...
match he tested positive for cocaine and he was suspended for 6 months.
Rumors of drug abuse where always present during Juarez's career but were always denied by the player. The 6 months suspension was the first clear proof that Juárez was involved in drug consumption. However, to this day, Juárez denies these accusations and claims his urine sample was switched on that test.
The comeback
In 2005 he completed his suspension and was signed by Deportivo Quito and after a slow start to regain form he managed to score 12 goals that season. The next season he was resigned by former Uruguayan team Nacional de Montevideo where he was used in the rotation of the squad. In a 2007 Copa Libertadores match against Emelec in MontevideoMontevideo
Montevideo is the largest city, the capital, and the chief port of Uruguay. The settlement was established in 1726 by Bruno Mauricio de Zabala, as a strategic move amidst a Spanish-Portuguese dispute over the platine region, and as a counter to the Portuguese colony at Colonia del Sacramento...
, Nacional won 3-1 and an extremely overweight Juárez scored the Uruguayans'last goal, he was very respectful and did not celebrate the goal, however the result sealed Emelec's elimination from the tournament that year.
After Emelec's elimination from the Copa Libertadores, the club management decided to bring back Juárez to play one last time for Emelec. When he arrived in Ecuador he needed sometime to get back in shape, it was said that he was around 40 pounds overweight, but when he got back in shape the impact of his presence was immediate. Juárez scored 6 goals and made 5 assists in 17 games for Emelec that season, and in a match against Deportivo Cuenca he scored his 134th goal for the club which made him Emelec's all time top goal scorer, surpassing the 133 goals of former Emelec's glory, Jesus Cardenas. Despite his good performances Emelec did not qualify for the final stages of the Ecuadorian league and Juárez went back to Argentina, expecting to be recalled for the next season.
When Emelec was disqualified from the 2007 Ecuadorian Championship, the club held elections to select a new management. New president Elias Wated and his group work, publicly disregarded Juárez as a signing for 2008, they said that he was too old, too fat, too slow, too problematic but overall too expensive for Emelec's budget.
For the 2008 season, the new management struggled to find good national and foreign players especially forwards, in the meantime Juárez was in Argentina handling personal businesses, later he would publicly confess that at the time he thought he was a retired player. Emelec's bad results contributed so that an Ecuadorian sports store decided to help the club and offered to sign Juárez for Emelec and pay all expenses. At first the team's management was reluctant to accept this, but after the bad run continued and the pressure from the press and most importantly the fans grew, they decided to accept Juárez's return. He is now part of Emelec's squad and has played in 4 games and has made 1 assists for the team which is fighting to qualify for the last stages of the league.
External links
BDFA profile Argentine Primera statistics- Career details at National Football Teams